Remember when?…

17th April, 2014 blanket sin – "programs"

Do you remember when people needed to go to the library to look up a word in an encyclopedia? If you remember that, then surely you know you are a dying breed.

So, I'm at work and I'm doodling with the calligraphy pen, looking for stuff to write. It happens that I recently discovered a radio show called The metal storm on KLXU 88.9FM and never got around to figuring out how to hook up the digital recorder so that I could record the show, which aired between 12midnight to 2:00AM, ended. Unfuckingfortunately, when I finally figure out the recorder, I hook it all up and I'm hearing a show called Night shade. What a fucked up thing to do, btw, to people who use to listen at that hour and come to realize the fucked up crap they're spinning would cause intense vomiting from a headbanger upon switching on the radio. So I go online… google… find some announcement about the guy to created Metal storm is retiring. Well, good for him.

I print out the program schedule. I see it hasn't been updated since January. I decide to choose another show as I've heard some pretty good tunes playing on this radio station from time to time. I highlight some shows I decide to record at night, then listen to at work. I use my calligraphy to write notations. Here: you can see for yourself in the picture on the right.

I look at how my writing slants upward in a retarded kind of way. I'm thinking, "Oh shite, peeps are going to think I'm duh stupidt. Duh. Next thing you know, I'm filling up whole paragraphs of this black letter calligraphy I'm trying to memorize. I just think it's cool when people write this way. awesome.

I can't do it, of course; can't reach that style calligraphers call their own. I've seen it in books about calligraphy. It's like they (calligraphers) aren't worrying about the exactness of each letter because they aren't being commissioned. They're just… you know… writing.

Once you know that's what I'm going for, you'll understand better what I'm trying to say in the draft copy.

17th April, 2014 blanket sin – "Arendt"

Okay, I may be going off topic a little, but bare with… I pick up a book, find an interesting paragraph (some fuckhead who had previously borrowed the book beforehand and decided to write all over it. Not that I care. I mean, I used those underlines and ¶ selections to find an interesting paragraph to use as dummy text. The first attempted paragraph [image: Arendt] shows how I can't keep a straight light, but I was pleased at that informal, personalized look of the lettering. Determined, I draw some guidelines and write the whole thing over again. I'm pleased with the results, but somehow the lettering looks overworked and mechanized. The previous ¶ above it seems more leisurely.

Forgetting about the radio programs, I take a full sheet and just rant. Mind you, I'm not using any guidelines and that's my main objective here — to write in a straight line. Whaddaya know, it looks half decent. I would've preferred the lettering be tinier, and if you can see, I started off with a tiny size but as I progressed, although I managed to keep a straight line, the lettering size fluctuates. Damn it!

If you spend time actually reading this stuff, however, I decided to create a log line for the screenplay I'm writing. Log lines might work better for me than what I've been getting out of trying to create outlines. As you know, log lines have to be outrageously interesting. they need to capture the producer, actor, director or whosoever you let to get a hold on your completed screenplay. I completely go berserk on the already thought out plot I've been working on for years. And I can't say it isn't an improvement. It's better than what I originally had planned for a screenplay anyway.

17th April, 2014 blanket sin – "Rough"

Somehow, writing this stuff out in this style made my thought process work differently. I could never have gotten this result if I were using my favorite pen and writing normally. Never. And now, I can't help thinking of the madness it must be like to live within a fly's husk. At this point, I would normally go off on a tangent and try to be philosophical. Believe me, dear friend, you don't want to hear any of that stuff.

I decide to revise the full page brainstorming rant using a disposable calligraphy marker. The metal nib I used for the full page in blue ink [image: rough] was trying my wrist.

So, I took the main premise of the first paragraph of the "rough" where I thought I had begun the outline process for the theme of my story)

Somewhere in here I'm going to try to plug the lj community I'm moderating to try to gain a substantial amount of members. http://pilcrow_news.livejournal.com I mean, the community doesn't have to be about heavy metal music scores, love at first sight, tragic love story, or flies. If anybody is interested, however, I have a free 16 page zine I'll mail out to you myself within the USA just for adding yourself as a member.

I scan all these comps after bringing them home from work so that I can upload them to my blog (this is what I mean about the contributions to ¶news. It doesn't have to be about writing in screenplay format and as long as a film/TV script is the main objective, nobody cares how your creative process goes about inspiring your writing process. I mean, I'm sure better artists have killed for it)

17th April, 2014 blanket sin – "Draft"

In the final draft [image: Draft], I didn't use guidelines. The proportion of the size of the letter is acceptable, but I knew I wouldn't be able to fill the entire page of the rough draft on a single page. I guess it's like scrunching a 90 minute screenplay to a 30 minute TV pilot. I'm pleased and convinced that not only is it important to get the lettering size proportioned right, the space between lines need to be tight. I have this thing about menopause I'm writing and the book I'm reading Write what you don't know is helping lots in this matter. If I could just emphasize where I'm at in the creative process stage. I'm writing Story B. [edit SUBPLOT] Fuck, I can't think of the term. Damn, and when this happens I go off topic. Shoot.

So the MC's situation is one in which he doesn't want to get reprimanded at work for sexual harassment. As a result, the girl he's been seeing is all happy go lucky because she isn't being pressured to go out on dates from him, hang out, have a drink, etc. Meanwhile, the guy's presence is zombie-like in that very little social interaction transpires between the two, whereas before, he could go on breaks with her, hang out after work at her place, drink casually, gossip about work, get high, you know… However, as it happens, the gal is quickly reaching that stage in life where it's possible to experience the first signs of menopause. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the stage that I am working on presently.

Does anybody else think Luca De Dominicis did an excellent job of portraying Herod in the movie Passion of the Christ? For some reason, the line* he has after not receiving any response from Jesus to his inquiries over the claim of being the messiah, is in my head. Not really a line, it's more of a "Ahhh, yeah, yeah, yeah" kind of thing that would precede these words: you thought you had me fooled. Although Herod doesn't say those exact words, it's the vocal gesture that's in my head. "Ahhh, yeah, yeah, yeah."